All ‘whole-parts’ in ‘space-time’ have substance and form. The substance is ‘matter-energy’, and form is the ‘order’. Orderis relationship—the pattern, organization andform of that ‘matter-energy’.

Jules Henri Poincaréexplained in 1908:

“Science is built up of facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts isno more a science than a heap of stones is a house.”

It is the order, pattern, organization, form and relationship of the facts that make ascience; and the order, pattern, organization, form and relationship of the stones thatmake a house.

An understanding of this concept of order—pattern, organization, form andrelationship; and its compliment concept disorder—patternlessness, disorganization,formlessness; and relationshiplessness that is essential to a full understandingUniverse.

Pattern IntegrityUnderstanding order begins with understanding pattern. R. Buckminster Fuller hasadded greatly to our understanding of pattern. His most comprehensive explanation ofpattern is found in Synergetics1.

However, Fuller’s language is not immediately accessible to many readers new to hisworks, fortunately a student of Fuller’s has come to our aid.

Amy C. Edmondson has written an introductary text2to Fuller's Synergeticswiththe specific purpose of making Fuller’s science more accessable to new readers. Whenshe uses quotations from Synergetics,it is with careful reference to the specificsections and paragraphs within Fuller's text.

Amy Edmondsonexplains:

“The term "pattern integrity" is a product of Fuller's lifelong commitment tovocabulary suitable for describing Scenario Universe. He explains,

“When we speak of pattern integrities, we refer to generalized patterns ofconceptuality gleaned sensorially from a plurality of special-case patternexperiences... . In a comprehensive view of nature, the physical world is seenas a patterning of patternings... (505.01-4)

“Let's start with his own simplest illustration. Tie a knot in a piece of nylonrope. An "overhand knot," as the simplest possible knot, is a good startingpoint. Hold both ends of the rope and make a loop by crossing one end over theother, tracing a full circle (360 degrees). Then pick up the end that liesunderneath, and go in through the opening to link a second loop with the first(another 360-degree turn). The procedure applies a set of instructions to apiece of material, and a pattern thereby becomes visible.

“What if we had applied the same instructions to a segment of manila ropeinstead? Or a shoelace? Or even a piece of cooked spaghetti? We would stillcreate an overhand knot. The procedure does not need to specify material. "Apattern has an integrity independent of the medium by virtue of which youhave received the information that it exists" (505.201). The knot isn't thatlittle bundle that we can see and touch, it's a weightless design, made visibleby the rope.

“The overhand-knot pattern has integrity: once tied, it stays put. In contrast,consider directions that specify going around once (360 degrees), simplymaking a loop. This pattern quickly disappears with the slightest provocation;

it is not a pattern integrity. (Even though the overhand knot depends on
friction to maintain its existence, a single loop will not be a stable pattern no
matter how smooth or coarse the rope.) Notice that it requires a minimum of
two full circles to create a pattern integrity. 2 ¥ 360 = 720 degrees, the same as
the sum of the surface angles of the tetrahedron (four triangles yield 4 ¥ 180
degrees). Minimum system, minimum knot, 720 degrees. A curious
coincidence? Synergetics is full of such coincidences.

“A similar example involves dropping a stone into a tank of water. "The stonedoes not penetrate the water molecules," Fuller explains in Synergetics, butrather "jostles the molecules," which in turn "jostle their neighboringmolecules" and so on. The scattered jostling, appearing chaotic in any one spot,produces a precisely organized cumulative reaction: perfect waves emanatingin concentric circles.

“Identical waves would be produced by dropping a stone in a tank full of milk orkerosene (or any liquid of similar viscosity). A wave is not liquid; it is an event,reliably predicted by initial conditions. The water will not surprise us andsuddenly break out into triangular craters. As the liquid's molecular array isrearranged by an outside disturbance, all-embracing space permeates theexperience. Because liquids are by definition almost incompressible, theycannot react to an applied force by contracting and expanding; rather, thewater must move around. In short, the impact of any force is quicklydistributed, creating the specific pattern shaped by the interaction of space'sinherent constraints with the characteristics of liquid.

“The concept thus introduced, Bucky goes on to the most important andmisunderstood of all pattern integrities: life. "What is really important... aboutyou or me is the thinkable you or the thinkable me, the abstract metaphysicalyou or me, ... what communications we have made with one another" (801.23).Every human being is a unique pattern integrity, temporarily given shape byflesh, as is the knot by rope.

“... All you see is a little of my pink face and hands and my shoes and clothing,and you can't see me, which is entirely the thinking, abstract, metaphysicalme. It becomes shocking to think that we recognize one another only as thetouchable, nonthinking biological organism and its clothed ensemble. (801.23)

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“Our bodies are physical, but life is metaphysical. Housed in a temporaryarrangement of energy as cells, life is a pattern integrity far more complexthan the knot or the wave. Remember that all the material present in the cellsof your body seven years ago has been completely replaced today, somehowshowing up with the same arrangement, color, and function. It doesn't matterwhether you ate bananas or tuna fish for lunch. A human being processesthousands of tons of food, air, and water in a lifetime. Just as a slip knot tied ina segment of cotton rope, which is spliced to a piece of nylon rope, in turnspliced to manila rope, then to Dacron rope (and so on) can be slid along therope from material to material without changing its "pattern integrity," we tooslide along the diverse strands supplied by Universe—as "self-rebuilding,beautifully designed pattern integrities." No weight is lost at the moment ofdeath. Whatever "life" is, it's not physical.

“The key is consciousness. "Mozart will always be there to any who hears hismusic." Likewise, "when we say 'atom' or think 'atom' we are... with livinglythinkable Democritus who first conceived and named the invisiblephenomenon 'atom'" (801.23). Life is made of awareness and thought, not fleshand blood. Each human being embodies a unique pattern integrity, evolvingwith every experience and thought. The total pattern of an individual's life isinconceivably complex and ultimately eternal. No human being could evercompletely describe such a pattern, as he can the overhand knot; thatcapability is relegated to the "Greater Intellectual Integrity of EternallyRegenerative Universe." (2)

“If we seem to stray from the subject of mathematics, resist the temptation tocategorize rigidly. Synergetics does not stop with geometry. Fuller was deeplyimpressed by a definition in a 1951 Massachusetts Institute of Technologycatalog, which read "Mathematics is the science of structure and pattern ingeneral" (606.01): not games with numbers and equations, but the tools forsystematic analysis of reality. To Fuller this meant that mathematics ought toenable the "comprehensivist" to see the underlying similarities betweensuperficially disparate phenomena, which might be missed by the specialist.Rope may not be much like water, but the knot is like the wave—is like thetetrahedron.”3

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R. Buckminster Fuller1975explains:

“Imagine yourselves in terms of a moving-picture scenario. You’ve all seenmoving pictures run backwards, where people undive out of the swimmingpool back onto the board. I’m going to run a moving picture of you backwards.You’ve just had breakfast; now, I’m going to run the picture backwards, andall the food comes out of your mouth onto the plate; and the plates go back uponto the serving tray and things go back into the stove, back into the icebox;they come out of the icebox and into the cans, and they go back to the store;and then, from the store they go back to the wholesaler; then they go back tothe factories where they’ve been put together; then they go back to the trucksand ships; and they finally get back to pineapples in Hawaii. Then thepineapples separate out, go back into the air; the raindrops go back into thesky, and so forth.

“But in the very fast accelerated reversal of a month practically everything hascome together that you now have on board you, gradually becoming your hairand your skin and so forth, whereas a month ago, it was some air coming overthe mountains. In other words, you get completely deployed. I want you tobegin to think of yourselves in an interesting way as each one of these.

“If we had some way of putting tracers on the pictures, you would see chemicalelements gradually getting closer and closer together, and, finally, getting intothose various vegetable places and into roasts and, tighter and tighter, intocans, into the store, finally getting to just being you or me—temporarily,becoming my hair, my ear, some part of my skin—and then that breaks up andgoes off and gets blown around as dust.

“Each of us is a very complex pattern integritywith which we were born.”4

Our human bodies are constantly being torn down and rebuilt. The ‘order’ of our bodiesis the result of what Fuller calls the pattern integrity. The design for this patternintegrity is contained within our DNA. Our DNA holds the blueprint for the

manufacture and remanufacture of our bodies, and this process is a continuing one
that never stops from conception until death. It is processthat allows for growth and
repair of injuries as well as recovery from illnesses.

Within in any ‘whole-part’ order can be increasing—increasing order is calledsyntropy, Or, within in any ‘whole-part’ order can be decreasing—decreasing order iscalled entropy. Or, within in any ‘whole-part’ order can be stagnant—order that isnot changing is called atropy. Syntropy, entropy, and atropy are encountered inUniverse as the result of synergy, adversity, and neutrality.

Scientists first encountered entropy—decreasing order—in their study of the simplerstages of process—light, particles, atoms, and small molecules

“In 1824 the French military engineer Sadi Carnotintroduced the concept ofthe heat-engine cycle and the principle of reversibility, both of which greatlyinfluenced the development of the science of thermodynamics. Carnot’s workconcerned the limitations on the maximum amount of work that can beobtained from a steam engine operating with a high-temperature heattransfer as its driving force. Later that century, his ideas were developed byRudolf Clausius1850, a German mathematician and physicist, into theSecond Law of Thermodynamics, which introduced the concept ofEntropy. Ultimately, the second law states that every process that occurs innature is irreversible and unidirectional, with that direction being dictated byan overall increase in entropy. It, together with the first law, forms the basisof the science of classical thermodynamics.”5

The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that in any closedsystem, no process canoccur that increases the net order (or decreases the net entropy) of the system. TheSecond Law of Thermodynamics assumes that the universe in its entirety is a closedsystem. The universe is heterogeneous—some regions within the universe are veryhot (stars), and some regions within the universe are very cold (open space). TheSecond Law of Thermodynamics tells us the hot regions are steadily cooling down, andthe cold regions are steadily warming up. The universe as a whole will reach a state ofthermodynamic equilibrium when everything in the universe is the sametemperature. At this point, all physical-chemical reactions will stop. This is the state

of maximum entropy. This state of complete randomness and homogeneity without
any order, structure, or pattern is known as the heat death of the universe.

However, Thermodynamics distinguishes between open and closed systems. A closedsystem is isolated from the rest of the environment and exchanges neither matter-energy or information with its surroundings. An open system is one in whichexchanges do occur, exchanges of matter-energy and information. Living systems areopen systems. Living systems are clearly ordered. Living systems can be seen aslocalized regions in ‘space-time’ where there is a continuous increase in order.

Erwin Schrödinger first proposed a connection between life and the Second Law ofThermodynamics in his monograph, “What is Life?”, published in 1945. ErwinSchrödingerstates:

“It (a living system)can only keep…alive by continually drawing from itsenvironment negative entropy(syntropy)…What an organism feeds upon isnegative entropy (syntropy).”

Living systems appeared to be violating the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Thisviolation so concerned the earlier scientists, that they were quick to explain away thisapparent violation. While they were willing to acknowledge that living systems didincrease their internal order, this insisted this was only possible at the cost ofdecreasing order externally elsewhere in universe.

James G Miller1978states that:

“Living systems maintain a steady state of negentropy (syntropy)even thoughentropic changes occur in them as they do everywhere else. They accomplishthis by taking in inputs of foods or fuels, matter-energy higher in complexityor organization or negentropy (i.e.,lower in entropy) than their outputs.”6

Life was thus described as an ‘order’ filter. Living systems simply took in ‘matter-energy’ of higher order than that which they excreted. This is of course true. Livingsystems do take in ‘matter-energy’ of higher order than that which they excrete. And,while this phenomena does to some extent helplifeescape the Second Law ofThermodynamics locally, there is something more going on here.